Physical Realization of the Parity Anomaly in Condensed Matter Physics

Abstract

We show that a PbTe-type narrow-gap semiconductor with an antiphase boundary (or domain wall) has currents of abnormal parity and induced fractional charges. A model is introduced which reduces the problem to the physics of a Dirac equation with a soliton in background electric and magnetic fields. We show that this system is a physical realization of the parity anomaly.